


Paper Dolls

by flashofthefuse



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Amnesty month, Body Swap, Gen, MFMM Year of Tropes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-24 03:40:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13205112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flashofthefuse/pseuds/flashofthefuse
Summary: A fashion show causes Phryne to reflect on the past.





	Paper Dolls

**Author's Note:**

> Not exactly a body swap but kind of?
> 
>  
> 
> And, I'm still one short of the set of 12, but @firesign pointed out that my Nov fic, Penny Dreadful, almost works as breaking the fourth wall so I'm calling it a year!

 

* * *

 

“I can’t wear this!”

“Of course you can. You look lovely.”

“I feel like a fraud. Everyone will think I’m getting above myself.”

“Nonsense! If I can do it, so can you!”

“Of course YOU can do it! It’s who you are!”

“It wasn’t always,” she said, meeting her friend’s eye in the mirror.

 

She thought back on those early days right after her life had taken a turn with the arrival of a telegram. Seemingly in an instant she’d gone from a hardscrabble, dreary existence to a life of ease and luxury.

Had it come earlier it might have been more welcome. As it was, she couldn’t enjoy it. Not at first. It was laden with burden and guilt. She didn’t deserve it. None of them did, especially not her father.

And it had taken her away. Away from the only life she’d ever known and away from her Janey. As Australia had faded from view, so had any hope she’d held that one day they’d find each other again. She’d failed her sister twice. First, when she’d lost her and then, again, when she’d let her parents take her so far away.

That’s when her life had become a fairy tale. Not the _‘some day my prince will come’_ kind of fairy tale but more like the Grimm’s Brothers. She was one of Cinderella’s stepsisters. Cutting off her toes to fit into a shoe that didn’t belong to her.

That’s how it had felt each time her mother stuffed her into those expensive new dresses. The fabric didn’t scratch or make her skin itch. She was scrubbed clean, her hair gleamed. When she looked in the mirror she didn’t know who was looking back. It was just as well they’d left. Janey wouldn’t even recognize her now.

With no one left to be herself for, she’d put on a different persona. One that matched the image in the mirror. She was a good mimic. She’d always known how to act to please when she wanted to. It served her well that first year. While she learned to navigate in this new world.

It was amazing to discover what money could do. She’d always known it made life easier but what surprised her most was the acceptance it bought. She was still the same girl that many of her new peers would have passed on the street without so much as a glance but this facade she wore allowed her into their world without question. It gave her leeway to do as she pleased. Soon enough she could put it on and take it off at will, and instead of confining her, it set her free.

There was mild censure, of course, and clucking disapproval at some of her behavior but it was put down to high-spiritedness and pluck. By the time she left to join the war effort there was no one that could tell her what to do or who she was supposed to be. She alone would decide her fate and determine her destiny.

 

“You know, Dot, if you really don’t want to wear the dress you needn’t,” she said, “but only because you’re unhappy, not because of what anyone else might think.”

“It is lovely,” Dot said, looking at herself in the mirror. The dress was the most beautiful thing she’d ever worn. It floated over her skin like a cloud. Sheer black lace with ‘sparkly bits’ that she hoped would catch Hugh’s eye. “Do you really think I can do this?”

“I know you can.”

 

Phryne watched from the back of the room as Dot made her way down the center aisle to excited applause. The beaming smile on her friend’s face warmed her heart. A minute later she followed in an incredible concoction of a dress. It wasn’t exactly her style, with the broad expanse of fabric at the hips and enormous bowed train at the back but she thought the intricate beading of the neckline quite extraordinary and the smile it brought to Jack's face even more so.

She wondered when, exactly, she’d stopped feeling like she was playing dress-up, but for a long time now she’d been completely at home in her own skin.

She’d taken a twist of fate and used it to her advantage. Not to change who she was but to expand it. She had the best of all worlds now. The ability to move within any sphere she desired. To choose her own friends, her own family and her own path in life.

She knew who she was, and it was who she had always been, right from the start.


End file.
